By now no one expects the Bush Administration to make itself accountable for its controversial and possibly illegal practices. But the next President will have a unique opportunity to reveal what has been kept hidden for the last seven years. Secrecy watchdog Steven Aftergood suggests a few questions for the presidential candidates about their willingness to disclose just what the current Administration has done.
Well, I don’t have anything against that, so long as it’s general:
A dispute over limits that Bill and Hillary Clinton have placed on the National Archives’ ability to release their White House records is highlighting a consequence of family dynasties in contemporary American politics: A president has sweeping power to keep potentially embarrassing documents from past administrations a secret.
When George W. Bush became president in 2001, one of his first acts was to slow the scheduled release of his father’s papers from the Reagan-Bush and Bush-Quayle administrations. The younger Bush later asserted executive privilege to maintain the secrecy of several Reagan-era documents related to the Iran-Contra scandal, in which the extent of his father’s role remains murky, historians say.
Similarly, should Hillary Clinton become president in 2009, she would exercise sweeping power over what documents from her husband’s administration can be made public. Scholars say that the Bush family’s experience in matters of presidential records suggests that a return to power for the Clinton family could complicate the release of White House papers from the 1990s.
“There is an extra incentive to suppress documents for presidents who have relatives with records whose disclosure might hurt both them and the incumbent,” said Bruce Buchanan, a political science professor at the University of Texas. “Family ties add an emotional and personal dimension to what would otherwise be a purely political or policy issue.”
Oh, and hey, look:
The National Archives is withholding from the public about 2,600 pages of records at President Clinton ‘s direction, despite a public assurance by one of his top aides last month that Mr. Clinton “has not blocked the release of a single document.”
You know, I think it might be useful to have these documents in hand so that we can objectively consider all of that prior experience that Hillary’s had in the Whitehouse, that makes her ready to step into the job from Day One. Before the fact, when it might do some good. Like John Kerry’s full military service file.
Strangely, though, Mr. Aftergood seems not to take any interest in this business. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the views of whoever it is that funds the Federation of American Scientists.
Steven Aftergood directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, where he writes the Secrecy News blog.
E-mail: saftergood@fas.org
I hope people use this email link here—>saftergood@fas.org to ask Mr. Aftergood about Clinton’s secret presidency.
Throw out the obligatory DoD funding sources, and it looks almost exactly like NPR’s major funding. ‘d be nice if they broke their funding down to amounts by source.
Dan,
Let’s be fair. The National Archives is obviously understaffed and overwhelmed with requests. How else can you explain the state of their section on Independent Counsel and Special Prosecutors? Use their search engine – “Kenneth Starr”, “impeachment”, “Starr Report”, “Barrett Report”, “Mike Espy”, “Henry Cisneros” – there are a lot of others but it’s quite obvious that the National Archives staff is just overwhelmed with work. They appear to be some 12-17 years behind in their archival duties.
We’re just darn lucky that they managed to get Walsh’s Iran Contra investigation archived.
Similarly, should Hillary Clinton become president in 2009, she would exercise sweeping power over what documents from her husband’s administration can be made public.
Or be made to disappear.
“Hello, I’m an objective reporter of events. And by objective, I of course mean that my opinions are right and yours are wrong.”
Same game.
Did anyone see Barry O’ stumping about how the Rethuglikans already have a bunch of dirt dug up on Hill/Bill? I liked how he made the thugs out to be the bad guys, and portrayed it in a manner that allowed him to claim that he was not attacking Hill/Bill, but referencing what the evil thugs will do to her. Kind of like Fuckabee releasing an attack ad to the press just to tell them how he was above using the attack ad, and then encouraging the press to report on his attack ad. Maybe if McCain doesn’t pick Fuckabee, Barry O’ could.
Hey, Sandy!
nice pants…
Have you noticed that when asked “which Republican candidate do you fear most?” , every single media personality associated with the Dems answers “McCain!”. Not “Well, I’d have to say McCain.” or “I’ve given this thought and there are many things to consider and in the final analysis, I would have to say McCain.”
They all answer immediately without pause. If it’s prediction time, I’m going to say that the Dems have something absolutely huge that they’re going to unveil on Johnny Mac. Like Marv Albert huge.
Sandy: “Thanks! I got ’em from Samsonite.”
FAS, by the way, was famous for inventing Soviet threats that might circumvent our missile defenses, and insisting that we design so as to counter them as if they were current threats; for example, the nonexistent and unrealizeable dunked-in-liquid-nitrogen RV.
Nope, no agenda here.
But the next President will have a unique opportunity to reveal what has been kept hidden for the last seven years.
The sad thing is anyone is dumb and credulous enough to think that the next president is going to reveal secrets about fighting the war on terror to make leftists happy.
Here’s a shocker.
Buttboy for shadowy foreign billionaire George Soros is calling for the next dem president to release records from the Bush admin.
Said buttboy shows absolutely no interest in records currently being witheld by the last dem president which would reveal much about the past conduct of the putative next dem president.
Since the known record of the dems in question, (not to mention the shadowy foreign billionaire meddler in American affairs, who may or may not still be a nazi), shows a decades-long crime spree, one might wonder where said buttboy and his daddy Soros get the balls to call for transparency from ANYONE.
I wonder how someone who makes his living giving knobjobs to people like that feels about the way his life has turned out.
Just cause he’s giving out knob jobs doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person. He has a kind heart, that’s all.
Goddamnit, that NY Sun article is full of shit:
Clinton reformed the FOIA with an Executive Order that effectively declassified hundreds of millions of documents, whereas Bush promptly reversed Clinton’s open government policies in his first year of office. Also, if Steven Aftergood is shady for his connections to Soros, then does NY Sun‘s connections to convicted felon Conrad Black make it a questionable source?
Pure, they are. Pure! VRWC! Rethuglikans! Some guy nobody has ever heard of is a crook? Look, over there … !
Holy whatever, AJB. All I said was that they ought to release all of those fuckers.
But as far as the Clintons claiming that GWB won’t release their records, that’s just funny, man.
It is all Bu$HitlerBurton’s fault ! And, Rove. And, Kyoto.
Consider for a moment the sheer mendacious beauty of the following assertion: “has not blocked the release of a single document.†Technically, I suppose the statement is quite true, they didn’t block just one. Ahh, the Clintons….
I think even though the next President reveals what has been kept hidden for the last seven years and make accountable for its controversial and possibly illegal practices, maybe nothing will change. It’s become a good lesson for the next administration and will be written to historical countries administrative.
ahem – Well said.
indefinitely? no. just until 2012. but skimming this it looks like the choices are “withholding” or granting access.
but then “withholding” has a lot more letters in it than “is” so maybe Clinton’s having trouble with the definition.
Nope he is not interested in equal access for the Clinton Documents. I wrote him and he responded. Though he did say it wasn’t a partisan agenda. SURE! I sure do believe him..NOT!
“Clinton’s open government policies”
Did a monkey or anything fly out of your ass when you typed that?
I think every administration has a secret and more often than not, it remains an secret. Whatever illegal activities the Bush administration is doing right now, I still would it revealed when the new leader occupies the White House.
They should make this part of the next national treasure movie. this would be kind of a scandal though. but if it is true, then go tell the public the truth. so that we know.
“Also, if Steven Aftergood is shady for his connections to Soros, then does NY Sun’s connections to convicted felon Conrad Black make it a questionable source?”
Yes. Now back to the issue of why a supposedly reputable organization is being funded by a convicted criminal who has yet to pay for his crimes.
I just looked into becoming a member of the FAS, so that as an American scientist I might have my concerns as to their political agenda addressed by the Federation. I found out that you need not be a scientist to join, so their very name is a lie. This answers the question as to why they accept support from a convicted and unrepentant criminal. They are a fundamentally dishonest organization, and I am an American scientist and would like for them to quit speaking in my name.
Thanks, Crimso.
For cryin’ out loud, there are still docs from WWI that remain classified. Anyone going to scream about Woodrow Wilson’s alleged “criminality”?
OTOH their military-information website is almost as good as globalsecurity.org, so they’ve got that going for them.
Just try getting information on an AN/ASN-128B, though, and see where that gets you.
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